. >>> and secretary of state, hillary clinton, the violence is only getting worse there. more than 40,000 lives have been lost. cnn's arwa damon has more on the latest, just how bad things are getting for locals who are still trying to live their lives in the middle of a war zone. >> reporter: it is hard to fully absorb the scale of the devastation here, how entire buildings seem to have folded down upon themselves. and then one continues to see traces of the lives of the civilians that called these buildings home, like the clothing that is just hanging right there. or children's books, like this one, the pages of it that we picked up from the rubble. but this conflict can be surreal. just a couple of blocks away, the local barber shop is open, as are a handful of other stores. women crowd around us, eager to talk but not be filmed. both sides have hurt us. wronged us, one says. basic supplies are available here although prices have skyrocketed it. bread, bread, we want it so badly. it is like a drug, this woman tells us. if somebody has breakfast, they can't afford dinne